Japan cultists reportedly planned more attacks

TOKYO — The cult leader Shoko Asahara plotted guerrilla attacks on Tokyo and other Japanese cities this year and ordered weapons stockpiled to carry out his plans, media reported yesterday.

The attacks were apparently intended to fulfill Asahara’s prophecies of an apocalypse in 1997 that only the cult would survive.

The reports cited the confessions of top members of the Aum Shinri Kyo cult, whom police are interrogating about the March 20 gas attack on the Tokyo subway that killed 12 people and sickened more than 5,500.

Asahara has maintained his innocence, but more and more of his disciples are pointing accusing fingers at him, Japanese news reports said, quoting police.

Caches of assault weapons, ammunition, and small firearms have been uncovered in hundreds of police raids, and cult members have told police they were intended for a guerrilla-style offensive against several Japanese cities beginning in November, the reports say.

Plans were made to attack Tokyo, several cities on Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island, and others on the main island of Honshu, the Japan Broadcasting Corp. quoted police sources as saying.